Art and info using XML

[fastolfe]

I can see a lot of people are suggesting cover art, but it’s a difficult job coding it.

Is it an idea to work off of the XML standard set down by the “Media Browser” team? In my humble opinion, Media Browser for Windows Media Center, is by far one of the smoothest, coolest looking media browsers out there! So why try and invent a system that already works. Not that you guys haven’t done a great job. The WIIMC is great! I’m just thinking that this might be an easy way to improve it. And there are numerous tools that gather cover art and data from IMBD and other sites like that, such as, MetaBrowser, Media Center Master, etc.

If you could hook on too that trend, you “only” need to code something that can read and display the XML info, and the folder.jpg and/or backdrop.jpg in the video folder.

I hope you think this is a good idea.

Anyway, great job! Love what you guys are doing!
/Pape

[dragbe]

Maybe for now we can develop (or use an existing one) an app that can run on a PC or MAC which would scan the hard drive for movies, and create an XML and download the cover arts. Then WiiMC would only need to show the cover arts and info from the XML.

I think Tantric don’t want to include the cover arts feature in the next release because it will take pretty much time to integrate the IMDB (or whatever source) browsing function in WiiMC, and there is much more things that need attention for now.

Tantric, what do you think of this idea? It would certainly need a redesign of the movie browsing section, but would make WiiMC the best player out there (for people that think that a Wii is not worth using as a Media Center, I don’t know what you want to watch but for me it’s DivX and the resolution is not affected by 480p on a 700MB Divx! If I want a full blown HD movie, I will use my BlueRay!)

Anyway, I see a big potential in WiiMC, and if I can contribute to it in any way, I will! 🙂

The reason I really want WiiMC to show cover arts, synopsis and other info is that I have a 2TB HD full of movies, and I found it pretty difficult to find what I’m looking for with the downloaded name… 😥

[wii_about_guide]

I had previously suggested using the info file formats used by XBMC, as there are several good PC scraper apps out there for those formats, such as MediaCompanion.

[mirumirai]

Hi guys,
I’m new here and just grabed a copy of WiiMC yesterday, absolutely great work! I’m also a software developer for a media/home-network company so I think I could help on the project. Cover arts support, and more generally library-management (instead of simple file access) would be a really great addition to WiiMC, as deadzoro has told going through a large collection of movies without it is quite a hassle.

Now I don’t think that going the indirect way (first supporting meta-files and use PC scraper apps and then only implement live-grabbers) is the most optimal way. My suggestion would be to port an existing lib that does what we want, libvalhalla for example (http://libvalhalla.geexbox.org/), and then directly integrate it into WiiMC by creating the first UI elements, covert display, summary, …

I will look into the project this week-end if I can find some time.

[jrash06]

I just recently found an awesome add-on for the Vista or Windows 7 Media Center. Their software is free and can be distributed with other applications if you have developed them, like WiiMC.

Go check this out at http://www.mymovies.dk/home.aspx , its called “My Movies” and I am convinced that there are some smart programmers out there that could integrate this easily into WiiMC.

Good luck with it, as I am of the same opinion as some of the other posters that for people with large movie collections this would be an great addition to its functionality.

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